"At first it felt barbaric to be writing a book after October 7, 2023, the Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen said, "especially while we have the hostages kept there, away from their families in Israel, and destruction going on in Gaza and you will allow yourself the privilege of escaping into a different world, into a world made of your own words? It felt wrong.""
""For me, this was a moment where I thought, 'Wait a minute. The right wing, the fascists, are scared of words. They truly believe that words can change something.' I thought, 'Well, if fascists fear words so much, then maybe it can also be used as a weapon,'" she said. "Not to escape reality with words, not as escapism quite the contrary: as a way to face reality.""
"In the novel, an Israeli toddler drops a hammer from a balcony, killing a teenage boy. A Palestinian construction worker who had been working on that balcony is arrested. The little boy's mother remains silent. What follows is a drama about guilt, denial and revenge a mirror of Israeli society, which Gundar-Goshen sees as trapped in a fatal cycle of fear of the "Other.""
After October 7, 2023, writing initially felt barbaric amid hostages and destruction in Gaza. Calls to boycott books and films that portray Palestinians humanely prompted renewed commitment to storytelling. A novel published in German, Ungebetene Gaste (Uninvited Guests), examines Jewish–Arab relations in Tel Aviv through a fatal accident: a toddler drops a hammer, killing a teenage boy; a Palestinian construction worker is arrested; the child's mother remains silent. The narrative probes guilt, denial, revenge, and a societal cycle of fear of the Other. Clinical experience in psychotherapy informs depictions of hidden psychological mechanisms and communal reactions to violence.
Read at www.dw.com
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